AMV Contest

Welcome and many, many thanks to everyone who submitted for last year; this year's convention will be the biggest event in the greater Portland/Vancouver area, and we all hope you'll be back.

Six AMV Categories

Intensity – Similar to an 'Action' category. A strong and solid audio and visual story engaging the audience with impact, high suspense, and gripping scenes throughout.

Instrumental – This category is an open format, using any anime and any style of AMV, with the only criterion being that the music contain no discernible lyrics, and no scat or nonsense syllables either.
Instrumental music may use the human voice as a wordless instrument. Here are two examples:

The sum, in years, of the latest (youngest) video source and audio source must equal at least 30.

Random Amusement – This is a broader category than Comedy / Parody; it also includes bizarre or off-beat works that con-fuse as well as a-muse.

Trailers – Includes fake commercials, TV spots, and movie and game trailers. May use actual advertising audio or a fictitious creation in the style of a commercial, trailer, or fake episode opening credits. Serious and intriguing dual-openers will also show in this category. Comedy trailers may get redirected to Random Amusement.

Effects – This is where the high-speed music and flashy stuff meet. Take your Bonine® and buckle in!

Video Formats

Yes: We will accept .avi, .mpg, .mkv, and .mp4 formats encoded in Xvid 4.0, DivX 5.05, H.264, and Microsoft MPEG 4 version 2, or earlier (lower numbered) versions of these codecs. Entrants using formats whose works encounter difficulties in playback will have about 2 weeks beyond the deadline to re-encode the work and resubmit.

No: We will reject .wmv, .swf, .mov files, and also reject SVCD disks. Basically, we'll pop the disk in a Win2K computer (to ensure backward compatibility) and we will need to see an .mpg, .mkv, .mp4 or .avi file. If we see anything else, or VIDEO_TS / AUDIO_TS directories, that entry gets rejected. But again, provided the initial attempt is received on time, we will contact the creator and he or she will have about 2 weeks of extra time to re-encode and resubmit.

Minimum Quality: Video size should be at least 640 x 360 and at least 23 frames/sec.

Maximum Length: The hard limit is 4 minutes and 40 seconds (4:40) which will include all bumpers, intro, ending, opening and closing titles.

Maximum File Size: For best playback, maximum file size is 150MB and maximum bit rate is 3000 kb/sec. A good guideline is that your final encoding should not exceed 32MB per minute of length.

Subtitles and Bugs: These are to be removed by the creator unless they are carefully selected to complement the work. Exception: You may create your own subtitles and overlay graphics to add to the work. Entries displaying a codec logo from a commercial codec vendor will also be rejected. Example: DivX versions 5.12 and higher often display the DivX logo. Earlier versions often do not display the logo.

Content

Anime is: (a) created by Japanese artists and studios for TV shows and movies, created for the Japanese viewing market, shown in Japan first or possibly elsewhere later, and as long as the primary dialogue is in Japanese, and (b) video content produced by Japanese game companies.

Other video content may be included in up to 10% by frame count. If other content is composited with anime, then it counts as 100% 'anime' as long as 1/3 of the visual field is of Japanese origin. Examples of non-Japanese content are:

PG-13: The contest will conform to MPAA 'PG-13' rating, roughly equivalent to TV-14 and the ESRB "T" or 'teen' ratings. The MPAA guidelines require no more than 0.2 seconds of so-called 'illicit material' per 30 min. Since each AMV is shorter than that, this means ONE instance per AMV, SIX frames at 30fps or FOUR frames at 24fps of 'illicit exposure' per AMV. Usually 'illicit' means 'something the character would get arrested for not wearing (enough) in public if this were real life.' However, since this is animation we can usually get away with diffuse views which fog out the naughty bits. Creators can also start with 'illicit' material and sanitize it themselves using blurs, mosaics, overlays, and other effects. No panty shots longer than 0.2 sec.

Lyrics: Each AMV may use no more than one instance of one 'explicit' word or salient suggestive phrase. Hint: Good audio editing can often cover an 'explicit' word with a sliver of the same length taken from an instrumental section when the band is playing the same note or chords. In cases of ambiguity, the collective of judges will confer to make a judgement. All such judgements are final.

No dubbed anime audio: Foreign-language dubs (such as English dubs of anime) may not be used as any audio source for AMVs.

All entries will be pre-screened by a panel of judges who will select the final contest playlist. At their option or consensus the judges' panel may elect to bend or waive one or a few rules, in the case of an exceptional entry. The judges may move an entry into a different category if they collectively believe that it is a better fit, more effective, or more entertaining. The judges may create a new category if a number of entries are received which would support such a theme or event class.

The decisions of the judges panel are made on the day following the contest deadline and are final.

Submissions and Deadline

This year there will be two submission deadlines for the Kumoricon 2011 contest.

The deadline for physical media (postal mail-in entries) will be 5:30pm PDT on Friday, 29-July-2011.

The deadline for electronic submissions (e-mails) will be 5:30pm PDT on Wednesday, 27-July-2011.

These are not postmark deadlines; rather, all materials must be received by these times.

Prizes are awarded to one entrant per category by a tally of audience votes. An overall, Best of Show prize is also chosen by audience vote. The judges may select an additional entry to receive a Judge's Choice award or another honor of their creation. The AMV Contest Coordinator may select an entry for Special Mention. Therefore, a total of between seven and nine prizes shall be awarded in 2011. In the unlikely event of a tie, the coordinator will attempt to convene a quorum or sub-set of judges to split the tie, poll a second audience in a run-off showing, or if feasible the coordinator may award twin prizes. A rare but not impossible event.

Who can submit – Anyone of any age from anywhere may create and submit AMVs for this contest—except—the AMV contest coordinator and members of the judges' panel. Other than that, you do not need to be a member of the 2011 Kumoricon anime convention and you do not need to be present at the convention to win prizes awarded in this contest. Prize winners who do not collect a prize at the convention Closing Ceremonies will be contacted privately to arrange shipping details.

How Many AMVs?

This year you may submit up to four AMVs, with a maximum of two in any one category. Additionally, any one AMV may submitted in two versions (such as Ending A vs Ending B) if you would like the judges to evaluate one over the other.

Generally, (and this is a goal rather than an "official rule,") the judges tend to select AMVs so that any particular anime series appears only once per category. For example, there may be one Summer Wars AMV in Intensity and another in Effects, but as an example again they would tend not to select twoAngel Beats AMVs for Instrumental. They would pick the better of those two first, then make room in the category for a different AMV using a different series. The effect is that while wildly popular characters may hit the screen a little less often, the audience gets to see many more anime series over the course of the contest.

One other General Goal is that any given audio source should play only once in the entire contest.

How and Where to Submit?

By e-mail: You may send an e-mail with a download link to:

gury1656r@opursnetr.com

…removing all 4 red 'r' characters.

Your e-mail should contain a download link where we can retrieve a stand-alone copy of the media file, not a streaming video site: No YouTube, viddler, etc. The site must allow downloads without registering, logging in, passwords, or setting up an account of any kind. The deadline to receive such links by e-mail is Wednesday, 27-July-2011.

Please do not send AMVs as e-mail attachments. My ISP will get mad at me.

By physical mail: You may mail CDs, DVDs or other physical media to:

Kumoricon 2011 AMV Contest
33470 Chinook Plaza
Scappoose, OR 97056

The deadline for receiving physical media is Friday, 29-July-2011. Physical media will not be returned, and will be destroyed shortly after the Kumoricon convention ends.

In either case, please include information in the e-mail text or on a sheet of paper accompanying physical media, listing:

Your name and city

Private contact, such as an e-mail address, phone number, or return mailing address

AMV title

Anime used, or 'various' of more than 5 different sources

Music used: composer, title name, performers

Any other information you feel might be informative to the judges (optional)

All private information is kept confidential, and destroyed after the convention ends and after the winners are contacted and prizes shipped.